Thursday, June 26, 2003

Farm Workers Lockout 1947

I see from
last week’s Castledermot notes that a memorial plaque to the late Joe Greene
was unveiled at Kilkea recently.I never
met Joe but his name has come up several times during my research into the
history of this part of the short grass county.Joe Greene was at different times in his working life a farm labourer, a
barman and a public representative.It
was his role in the workers strike or if you prefer the workers “lockout” of
1947 which earned him an entry in the local annals of this area.

I first
came across a reference to Joe Greene when I was doing some research into the
development of trade unionism in South Kildare.Farm labourers had gone on strike in 1923 during which local man Christy
Supple, who was the union organiser for the area, was arrested and
imprisoned.That strike ended in defeat
for the workers who also included County Council workmen whom Supple had been
trying to organise.The dispute of 1947
which was centered on the Kilkea area resulted from the refusal of local
farmers to allow their workmen to take a half day off every Saturday.When the initial demand for a half day off with
pay was refused, the workers, organised by Willie Reilly, a Galway man who
worked in the area and Castledermot born Joe Greene decided to take off a half
day without pay.The resultant clash
between workers and farmers led to what the employers always referred to as
“the strike” whilst to the workmen involved it was a “lockout”.

Joe Greene
was, according to that great local trade unionist Paddy Bergin “the leading
figure in the 1947 lockout”.Paddy who
worked in the Carlow Sugar factory was chairman of the Carlow branch of the
newly formed Federated Union of Rural Workers.He had the responsibility of organising the local farm workers and
County Council workmen and relied heavily on Joe Greene of Castledermot to look
after the south Kildare area.In that
regard Paddy was not to be disappointed for the new union emerged just as the
agitation for a weekly half day holiday gathered momemtum.After the local farmers refused the workman a
paid half day off each week the workers decided to take the half day off in any
event, forgoing the wages that they could have earned.This led to an ultimatum from the farmers
that any workmen who did not work on the following Saturday afternoon would be
sacked.The inevitable happened.Many of the workmen absented themselves on
the Saturday afternoon and suffered the fate which had been threatened.A public meeting was held in Emily Square,
Athy that Saturday evening addressed by Paddy Bergin from Carlow and Joe Greene
from Castledermot.A feature of that
meeting was the first public airing of a ballad composed by a young man from
Grangemellon.Kevin Fingleton who died
in 2001 sang his ballad “The Kilkea Lockout” to the air of “Patsy Fagan” and
thereafter it was to be the rallying song of the workers who gathered each day
at the Round Bush at Kilkea.

The dispute
dragged on for a number of weeks amidst claim and counterclaim from the
opposing parties and tempers did occasionally get out of hand.Members of the Young Farmers Club founded in
Athy by Stephen Cullinane and others in 1944 became involved in the dispute
when they volunteered to take the place of striking workmen.Inevitably this heightened tension in the
area and running battles took place between the strikers and those, amongst
whom were the Young Farmer Club members, who passed the pickets to work the
strike bound farms.

Joe Greene
and Paddy Bergin were summoned following a fracas in Baltinglass and on
conviction were each fined £5.00.Other workers were charged in Athy District
Court following disturbances at Levitstown and surrounding areas and they
incurred the same financial penalties.

The striking workers met each morning at the Round Bush at Kilkea and it
was there that the memorial plaque to Joe Greene was unveiled last week.Even when they were working and earning a
weekly wage local farm workers had a hard time financially but having to rely
solely on the financial contributions of fellow trade unionists and local
sympathisers meant that their plight was pitiable for the duration of the
strike.

Local dignatories including Michael G. Nolan, the Chairman of Athy Urban
District Council and a member of Kildare County Council tried to mediate
between the parties. A meeting was held in November 1947 at which Nolan
presided but unfortunately terms could not be agreed between the parties.The Strike / Lockout dragged on and was not
finally settled until a week before Christmas 1947.It had lasted nine weeks.

Joe Greene who had started his working life as a farm labourer was taken
on as a full time union official by the Federated Union of Rural Workers.Paddy Bergin in an article which appeared in
the 1990 edition of “Carlow Past and Present” recounted how badly Joe was
treated by the Union when they terminated his employment sometime after the
Kilkea Strike / Lockout.Fortunately Joe
was offered a job by local publican Mary Ann Doyle and he finished out his
working life as a popular barman in Doyle’s of Castledermot.

One other story arising out of the Kilkea Strike / Lockout told by Paddy
Bergin which deserves to be retold related to Jim Loughman who was employed by
Kildare County Council as a road worker. Jim lived near Maganey and one day towards the
end of the dispute he contacted Paddy Bergin and gave him a donation of £15.00
for the workers.This was a substantial
sum of money at a time when the agricultural workers earned £2.13/6 per
week.Jim who was a noted traditional
fiddler had apparently sold his winter supply of turf and hay and passed on the
entire proceeds to Paddy Bergin to be shared among the striking workers.His unstinting generosity was equalled only
by the sacrifices made by the striking farm workers who for nine weeks held out
for the right to a half day holiday each week.

Some years following the Kilkea farm workers dispute an Act was passed
in the Dáil which gave agricultural workers a legal entitlement to a weekly
half day holiday.The memorial recently
erected in Joe Greene’s memory was funded by the Rural Workers Section of
S.I.P.T.U. with whom the Worker’s Union of Ireland had amalgamated some years
ago.The original Federation of Rural
Worker’s Union in which Joe Greene had been a branch secretary had earlier been
subsumed into the Worker’s Union.Given
Paddy Bergin’s criticism of the Union’s treatment of Joe in the aftermath of
the Kilkea dispute it is perhaps fitting that the largest Union in the country
should acknowledge the part played by Joe Greene in furthering the worker’s
cause.Joe Greene and the Kilkea workers
deserved to be remembered but so too do Jim Loughman and all those who gave support
to the local farm workers during the nine weeks labour dispute of 1947.